MTG Arena has banned the contentious Leyline of Resonance in best-of-one Standard
- By Ash
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[Update #2]: MTG Arena will be getting the entirety of competitive Pioneer on December 10th, 2024!
[Update]: All of Magic: The Gathering's future cross-over sets will be legal in every format.
If you've been playing Standard for the past couple of weeks you're probably well aware of just how omnipresent the Leyline of Resonance 'combo' decks are. They're fragile and fold to early removal, sure, but if you stumble for even a single turn it's very easy to find yourself getting hit for over 20 damage.
Much like Tibalt's Trickery from a few years back, Leyline of Resonance creates some very boring games where the player using it either wins or loses within a couple of turns - almost like deciding the match with a coinflip. Unsurprisingly, this very quickly put it on Wizards of the Coast's ban radar, though since the set had only just released at the time of the last announcement, they figured they'd give it a little bit more time to see if the meta can self-correct.
Factorio's Space Age expansion has added new worlds, giant worms and even better trains!
- By Ash
- in Indie Games
Factorio is one of those games where getting started is quite tricky given its complexity, yet once you do get comfortable it's also a game where you can easily lose hundreds of hours feverishly trying to optimize your ever-growing and all-consuming factory. And I should know, because I'm exactly that man! However, don't take any of this as a complaint because Factorio is a great game, and it has just become even greater!
Thanks to the freshly launched Space Age expansion you can now shed the shackles that bound you to the biter-infested world of Nauvis and explore four unique new planets. The new sights include desolate wastelands, multi-colored swamps, volcanically active hellscapes and their frozen counterparts. As you might imagine, each world brings with it its own unique challenges, potential flora and fauna, as well as a plethora of unique resources or opportunities to exploit.
The Steam Next Fest has now arrived with hundreds upon hundreds of free demos for upcoming games
- By Ash
- in News
As you might guess from the name alone, the Steam Next Fest is week-long event celebrating upcoming games, with the focus generally being on unique and interesting indie games. Most importantly of all, many of the participating games have free demos available for the duration of the event, so if you're looking to get into a new genre or just try out a game you've been keeping an eye on for a while, this is the perfect time to do so.
On the other hand, if you're not sure where to even begin, allow me to share with you a couple of stand-outs from various genres that I found rather fascinating, even if some are a little bit unpolished at the moment. Here they are, in no particular order:
A Way Out and It Takes Two team will be revealing a brand new game soon
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- in News
In an era where games are often either singleplayer or some sort of live service ordeal with thousands of players everywhere, Hazelight Studios stands as one of the last few bastions of true co-op focused gaming. And considering how both of the team's 'recent' games, A Way Out and It Takes Two, have ended up being nothing short of amazing, it's hard not to cheer for Hazelight.
Now that you know where I'm coming from, I hope you realize just how excited I am to announce that Hazelight will soon be revealing a brand new game! It's also not going to be a sequel to either of their previous games, but rather a brand new IP!
MTG Arena's Alchemy: Duskmourn mini-expansion has added a fresh batch of horror tropes
- By Ash
- in News
[Update #2]: All of Magic: The Gathering's future cross-over sets will be legal in every format.
[Update]: MTG Arena has banned the contentious Leyline of Resonance in best-of-one Standard!
As with all of the Alchemy mini-expansions, the freshly released Alchemy: Duskmourn has now arrived with 30 new cards to muck around with. The new cards not only slot in well with the horror, enchantment and manifest themes of the main set, but many of them also share creature types with Bloomburrow's critters which gives them a lot of flexibility.
Furthermore, I feel like this Alchemy set has been the most spot-on in terms of power level. Nothing really stands out as being particularly obnoxious to play against, and there's only one card I would consider somewhat mediocre, and that's a mythic! Everything else, from the creatures to the enchantments, I can easily see being played in some sort of deck. So whoever designed both these cards and Duskmourn itself, hats off as you did a great job!
Helldivers 2 has added programmable ammo, buffed player armor and a whole host of weapons
- By Ash
- in News
[Update]: Helldivers 2's next Warbond is coming October 31st with a heavy SMG, plasma pistol and unflinching armor.
While the recent and rather chunky update fixed many of the problems that plagued Helldivers 2, there were simply far too many issues to knock out in one single patch. And so, Arrowhead have now released another big update aimed at not only improving weapons across the board, but also giving fan-favorite toys a couple of new functionalities!
As such, both the Autocannon and the Recoilless Rifle have now received programmable ammo! The Autocannon can switch to flak which gives it the ability to carpet bomb a large area and clear out any low-tier enemies, while the Recoilless Rifle can swap out its bombastic rockets for a variant with lower damage, but a far bigger area of effect. Unsurprisingly, this tweak has made the already versatile Autocannon an even safer and more consistent choice regardless of what sort of enemies you might face.
World of Warcraft's 20th Anniversary update is coming October 22 with exciting new (and old) content!
- By Ash
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[Update #2]: In a truly outlandish move, World of Warcraft has just launched a $90 auction-house carrying dinosaur mount!
[Update]: The 20th anniversary update has now arrived, and sadly the new events are a lot grindier than I would've liked.
It's only been a short while since The War Within expansion launched, and already Blizzard is getting ready to unleash a whole bunch of new content to play around with. Best of all, this new content will tie in with the game's 20th anniversary and thus bring with it a wide assortment of cool cosmetics to collect.
First and foremost, the iconic Tier 2 sets from WoW Classic will be getting updated versions that you can acquire through the new Bronze Celebration Tokens. And if you're like me and you're playing one of the classes that didn't exist back in the day, worry not as Blizzard has also created entirely new Tier 2 inspired sets so no class misses out on the fun.
